2014 Vol. 8 Issue 5 October - Laserfiche WebLink

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Gem Lake News Page 5 of 6 Celebrating 44 Years of Early Childhood Education in Gem Lake: White Bear Montessori School For 44 years, the White Bear Lake Montessori School has been providing quality early childhood education to students in our area. This Gem Lake based organization was founded in 1970 and is now located at the Corner of County Road E and LaBore Road. The school utilizes a curriculum designed by Italian Dr. Maria Montessori, which is based on children developing a love of learning in their early years, that they can carry forward through their lives. The school moved to its current facility in 1998 and now serves four main groups of kids: toddlers, preschool students, kindergarteners, and elementary students, grades 1-3. There are approximately 80-100 students at the school at any one time, spread through five classrooms. "We have one room devoted to toddlers, three classrooms devoted to a mixture of preschool and kindergarten students and one classroom for the elementary school students, 1st through 3rd grade," according to Head of School Marnie McPherson. "We blend various ages in every room, so they can learn from each other too." The Montessori concept has a philosophy of following the interests of the child in order to achieve academic success. "Children learn at their own pace and according to their own interests," said Marnie. "Yes, we expose them to letters and numbers, and things like that, but we try not to push areas of learning that the child may not be ready for, or has no interest in yet. All the learning is individualized to the child.” This means there are few group lessons. “When a child is interested in or developmentally ready for a certain academic area, they explode into learning and often progress very quickly. Our goal is to help each child develop a love of learning, and because they play such an active role in their learning, the children find a lot of joy in the process.” The Montessori philosophy was created in Italy by Dr. Maria Montessori in 1907 and has since spread to nearly all countries of the world. The White Bear Montessori program is a full day or half day program and is privately funded. "Tuition is mid-range of other private schools in the area. We also do our best to support families in need by several state funded financial aid options or private grants,” said Marnie. The school is very proud of its academic record. There are over 200 Montessori schools in Minnesota, but only 12 of them are fully accredited by the AMI (Association of Montessori International). White Bear Montessori is one of them. For more information call 651-429-3710.